Alain de Botton: Status Anxiety
I am currently reading Alain de Botton’s book “Status Anxiety”. It will take some time, as I pick it up again only when I happen to feel like it. It’s an interesting book. I just happened to bash the yellow press a month ago, when I got fed up with the strange news that are flashed as newsworthy these days. In his book, Alain makes a similar observation.
Although Alain puts a lot of effort into defining what “status” might mean, and why it may be a cause for anxiety, I think that the core idea behind the book is very familiar. If you let other people define what you value in life, and what you should aspire to, you may very easily find yourself living a very unfulfilled life. This idea is reflected in the solutions Alain has to offer—philosophy, art, politics, Christianity, and bohemia.
I cringed a bit at first at the inclusion of Christianity in Alain’s list, but it does seem to offer a solution. The thought that your status in life doesn’t matter, because your true status is determined in an afterlife, does offer consolation for status anxiety. In this case, it strikes me that the cure may be worse than the disease.
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No blogging during vacation
I didn’t bother to write a single blog entry during my four-week vacation. I don’t want to imply that blogging during a vacation is wrong, this time I just chose not to. Being able to choose, even in puny things like this, and being concious about the choice is part of happiness.